Photography as a business - share your methods, successes, and pitfalls

Photography as a business - share your methods, successes, and pitfalls

I had the idea today of starting a thread where those of us that market our photography for whatever sort of income can share ideas, things that work, best practices, and mistakes we can all learn from. There's plenty of threads in here discussing gear and workflow, and for photo sharing, but nothing yet specific to the day to day things we do that don't involve a camera or Lightroom. Things like accounting, marketing, networking, office layout, etc.

Here's a few things I'm curious about right off the bat:

1. What kind of company does everyone here exist under? How many are sole proprietors, and how many LLCs?

2. For those of you that market actively through Facebook, how do you use page insights to your advantage?

3. I need a good office chair for the hours spent culling and processing. Any suggestions?

4. Does anyone use a customer relationship manager application, or do you manage your client base through an address book or Outlook?

I'm down with education being a subject as well, though I feel strongly that a business heavy education is more valuable than one biased more toward photography. I think a solid business foundation with four years of part time shooting, experimentation, and portfolio building will make a lot more of a difference to you in the long run.

1. What kind of company does everyone here exist under? How many are sole proprietors, and how many LLCs?

SP at the moment, I considered LLC but the way my province handles it would mean that I wouldn't get many tax incentives as a small business until I start hiring employees, so I'm taking the extra risk for the moment.

2. For those of you that market actively through Facebook, how do you use page insights to your advantage?

I watch it but I don't make it too much of a concern, as of right now about 50% of my page likes are in my city and 70% in my province, so as long as I'm reaching my market I'm happy. I have been watching it a bit closer lately to see what content gets more attention.

3. I need a good office chair for the hours spent culling and processing. Any suggestions?

I honestly have no idea, I was in the market a couple months ago but all the chairs I really liked were $1000+, so I settled with a $200 chair from a local office supply store, which is fine, but nothing great. If someone has some better suggestions I'd love to hear it as well.

4. Does anyone use a customer relationship manager application, or do you manage your client base through an address book or Outlook?

Address book for me, I've never had anything come up where I found that that wasn't enough, most of my customer contact comes through email and occasionally by phone, so between that and iCal I'm able to run things smoothly.

I still need to select an accountant to talk things over with, but I'm very leery about the whole LLC thing as it seems the concept lost a lot of its credibility a few years ago, at least on the local level. When the economy tanked here in 2007, a lot of the small owner-operator companies I dealt with on the commercial truck side folded up and used their LLC status to walk away from their debts, even though many of the contracts they signed had personal guarantee clauses. A lot of creditors lost a lot of money in court battles, and from what I've seen there's a lot less desire to provide financial assistance to an LLC startup.

As for seats, my day job place is a Seats Inc. dealer, and while their primary focus is vehicle seating, they make a version of their premium on-highway seat on on an office chair base. I'm considering that, as the Legacy truck seat is quite comfortable, and designed for hours at a time of use. It's pricey though, and I want to consider some other options before I commit to buying one.

I'm curious at what point you guys turned it into an actual business. I've only done a few paid gigs and just file it as extra income during tax time.

__________________Lord, I quit the drinkin', the smokin' an' the honky-tonk life.
The day that a ring an' a preacher made her my wife.
Yeah, an' I said: "I do," but I didn't have a clue,
How I'd miss all the whiskey an' women.
I tried to be true, but it's all I can do,
Keepin' up with the Jonesin'

There's a number of ways, but I failed a 100% credit final and was given the option to wait a year to redo the class which I needed to do the rest of the degree, or leave..I left, best decision I've ever made.

There's a number of ways, but I failed a 100% credit final and was given the option to wait a year to redo the class which I needed to do the rest of the degree, or leave..I left, best decision I've ever made.

oh so you didnt really get kicked out. good for you then if you saved money by not going back.